Uninvited
by Hypsidium
Summary: Movie!verse AU. Egon and Janine centric.
1. Uninvited

By the time they reached the ground floor of Dana's apartment building Louis had thrown up twice, Dana had to be carried several flights, and Ray had vowed over and over to make jet packs feasible.

Egon had to admit that the idea of powered flight was at least theoretically possible, merely improbable to do safely. It bore more research though, especially in a situation in which elevators were not available for easy transportation.

Regardless, they had, against all odds, reached the ground floor. Marshmallow had flooded the street, leaving them a bank of stickiness four feet deep to wade through. Egon was mildly concerned about the packs being capable of operation with the goop clogging the reactors and made a mental note to check them each for potentially hazardous leaks.

Light from the risen sun streamed through broken windows, casting patterns on the mess like monochromatic stained glass on dirty snow. Still, it was surprisingly good to be on firm ground and out of the unnatural dark.

They exited to the crowd chanting their name, screaming in joy and quite possibly hysteria from the events of the past few hours.

Egon had to admit, he felt a touch hysterical himself. Death was not something he considered a concern; it happened, it would eventually happen, and it was just another inevitable physical truth. He felt little need to concern himself with such an abstract concept as his own existential cessation when there was far more important work to be done.

He had, quite simply, just never cared that much one way or another.

He waved to the crowd distractedly, giving them a forced smile when Raymond jabbed him in the ribs. Someone called his name off to the left and he turned just in time to see Janine punch a cop in the eye, break through the police line, and come barreling at him.

His smile this time was honest and he caught her in his arms even though she nearly knocked him backwards. He noticed she had thrown on a coat and a head scarf before coming, very sensible that woman. He regretted not having had her foresight, marshmallow would undoubtedly be difficult to remove from hair.

Caught in the moment, he shouted out the first thing that came to mind over the din of the crowd, a rarity for him. "You should marry me!"

She smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corner as she touched his face. "Yeah, sure, why not?"

"You should know that you are marrying into a distinguished family."

"What?" She looked genuinely confused.

He glanced down at their interlinked hands. "I mean to imply that you will be taken care of, regardless of happenstance."

Ray ducked his head in the front seat, crouching over the wheel and obviously trying not to listen in.

"Who says I want taken care of?" She narrowed her eyes at him fractionally.

He paused. It had not really occurred to him that she wouldn't know what family he was from. In Ohio the Spenglers were well known as a pharmaceutical dynasty. In New York it was likely she had never heard of them. He had become accustomed to the opposite sex being more interested in his family's wealth than in him in particular and it struck him that this woman was more honest than any woman he had ever dated before.

How curious.

The courthouse was fairly empty when they went the following day, signed their papers with Raymond as witness, and left. He sat in the back seat of the converted ambulance with her on the way back to the firehouse to resume the extensive clean up process. Janine, after his diatribe on taking care of her, had insisted on retaining her last name.

It had still been a good lunch break, all things considered.

"Janine."

"Yeah?" She stomped past him into the kitchen, flinging her purse down onto the couch as she passed.

He watched her go without commentary on her behavior. Beyond his view he could hear pots and pans being moved around in what he supposed was anger.

"It has come to my attention that you may or may not be involved in a dalliance with Louis Tully." It did not surprise him, he hadn't spent the night in their apartment for well over two months and, though they saw each other in passing at work, it simply did not seem to be enough for her. She had her needs, and he only meant to address the issue if it could be addressed.

"Oh?" Sounds other than her voice ceased.

He waited for her to continue.

"What are you going to do about it anyway?" She sounded strangely sad.

"That much is up to you." Did she think him angry? He really had little right to be angry, but he couldn't help but be insulted by her alternative choice.

"Great. God. Do you even give a shit?" She then appeared in the doorway, as fearsome and terrible as Gozer himself. "I mean you can't even pretend to be surprised at all. Or jealous. Or angry."

"I find myself a bit perturbed, yes." It was an understatement, but he felt it unnecessary to give her more fuel for the fire.

"God Egon, he was actually interested in me for crissakes..." She continued as though he had said nothing and looked sad again, slumping against the door frame.

"If I am not fulfilling my duties adequately, I apologise, but there were quite a few more immediate concerns that had to be dealt with."

"More immediate than your wife."

"Yes." There was no sense in lying, and this was the one woman who did not expect him to lie to her.

"You're such an asshole," she choked, disappearing into the kitchen.

Egon blinked after her. He was the asshole? Of course, he had not escaped that definition, the word had been given to him more times than once, but this was the only time at which he felt he not only was not the one deserving of it but that it actually affected him. How odd that by a single word from her he could feel so strangely.

"I'm an asshole?" he queried, invading the kitchen so he could see her. She was bent to her elbows over the sink, her back shaking.

"You're an insufferable prick. That better for ya?" She ran her hands through her hair and he noted that she must have just been ill.

"You aren't well. Perhaps you should lie down and we can speak more about this tomorrow."

"I'm pregnant, you jerk, and you haven't noticed in three months." Her shoulders shook and she wouldn't even look at him.

"Oh." He cast around the room, trying to digest the information. Then, as before, he said the first thing that came to mind.

"I'm an asshole."


	2. Dandelion

Egon strode down the hallway, ignoring the nurses as they told him not to run in the building.

He was not running, he was walking. Quickly.

His goal was not really all that far, and when he had received the phone call he had simply dropped everything he had been working on at the moment. Ray had been displeased until he realized what the call was all about, at which point he had wanted to attend as well. Egon had, as politely as possible, declined to take him with him. This was something he needed to do alone.

He finally reached the section he was meant to be in, but found himself unable to locate the precise room, so turned back to ask the nurse on duty.

She gave him a hard look until he explained the situation and his less-than-sterile clothing. With a nod she wrote a few directions on a piece of scrap paper and handed it back to him that he might complete his journey.

Finding it after that was simple really, but entering suddenly stilled his feet where they stood and he paused in the doorway, feeling both exhilarated and unwelcome. But still, he had been called, and therefore the invitation had been extended. He entered quietly.

Of course her family would be there. It made sense, though the looks he was given as they filed out were less than friendly. He cleared his throat and folded his hands behind his back for lack of a better place to put them.

"Why are you standing clear over there? There's a chair here," she beckoned for him to sit at her side, which he obeyed wordlessly.

"That's better. So." Janine folded her hands across her chest.

"So," he repeated, mumbled the words to the railing on the bed.

"1:34."

"Beg your pardon?" He looked up, furrowing his brows at her.

"In the morning."

"Oh." His eyes widened. "That's quite early."

"Mmhm, tell me about it." She smiled, closing her eyes for a moment. "Do you want to see...?"

"Yes." He almost cut her off in his hurry.

"Then help me up, I've been sitting on my ass for the past six hours and I need to stretch anyway."

"Won't the nurses-"

"Ah what they don't know won't hurt them."

He gave her a dubious look, but bent to assist her regardless and actually focused on her face for the first moment since arriving.

She looked like hell, her hair plastered with sweat, bags under her eyes, and face devoid of makeup.

It was the most beautiful she'd ever been.

"You should marry me." The words spilled unbidden. He paused, reconsidered. "Again, that is."

She had the grace to chuckle as he put slippers on her feet. "I think that's what got us into this mess, Dr Spengler."

"Pardon me if I do not think of this as a 'mess'." He slid an arm under hers and carefully shifted her to her feet, holding an elbow out for her to steady herself on.

"Potato, potato. Let's go."

And so they shuffled slowly - agonizingly so - to a windowed room where his eyes automatically searched for something light blue.

"That one," she pointed. "Third from the right, first row."

Pink. He blinked twice and glanced back down at her, but she wasn't looking at him, she was smiling at the indiscernible mass clothed in pink terrycloth. Spenglers were generally born male, a strange but common occurrence in their family. The last girl had been his cousin, and she was nearing 53.

He looked back at the bundle, unable to really see anything, so he read the name tag instead.

S., Imogene.

He looked back down at Janine, who swayed a little on her feet and clung to the crook of his arm. He carefully placed that arm around her shoulders and stilled her wavering himself. "Imogene?"

"Mmhm. It's Gaelic."

Like his own name. He was unsure if that was planned or not. "S? For...?"

"Spengler. She's your daughter too."

He looked back through the window as a nurse picked up the pink amorphous mass and unwrapped it like a present, revealing a tiny pink skinned creature with a tuft of hair of an indeterminate color. She made some sort of noise as the nurse re-applied the swaddling, but the window was sound proofed and he couldn't hear anything.

Egon was fairly certain he had felt love - true and unconditional love - for the first time in that brief moment. He looked back down at Janine, seeing the same emotion reflected in her tired eyes. She looked so exhausted that he carefully hefted her into his arms, intending to carry her back to her room.

"You know, you should marry me." He said calmly as they trekked back to the room, her trying to keep her gown down.

She laughed, looping an arm around his neck. She was so limp and almost frail in that moment he was afraid she might shatter to pieces. "I'll think about it."

"Take your time."

"Mm." She curled against him sleepily.

They said no more until she was back in her room and laid down in her bed. He sat alongside, folding his hands back into his lap.

"If you wait a couple hours, you can hold her after she's fed. They just took her back after everyone in my family just had to poke and prod her, so it's probably better to let her rest a while." Janine had her eyes closed.

"I would like that very much." He looked down at his hands.

"Want to read to me in the meantime? My books on the table there." She made a vague gesture in the direction of the end table.

He smiled, looking back up at her. "Yes, I suppose I could."

"Thank you." She flopped an arm over her eyes as he reached out and took her book from the table, flipping it open to her marker.

"I'm still of the opinion you should re-marry me."

"Oh, shut up."


End file.
